


Connections

by SleepyOwl (Indigofingers)



Series: Shots [2]
Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: Angst, Codenames, Crimes & Criminals, Detectives, Dialogue Heavy, Gangs, Gen, Guns, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Police, Sarcasm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-20 01:31:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17612885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indigofingers/pseuds/SleepyOwl
Summary: Evie spends time with Jay and gives him a nickname. There's a lot of sass.





	Connections

**Author's Note:**

> I have never written something so self-indulgent and that's saying something. I swear that Evie isn't supposed to be me (and she really isn't) but she is highly projectable. Is that a thing? Anyway, it's just fun to write, so even if nobody reads it, it's made me happy.

Evie hated police stations. 

Not because she hated the police, but there was a feeling she got about them, like she was very aware of how she didn't belong. Most of the cops were there because they believed in the difference they made. They were there because they chose to be. Those men and women might have started off in some rough places, but there they walked around like avenging angels and they did belong. 

"Hey, pain in my ass, where you been? Thought maybe you'd been killed or something." Platt had always been the same: a wicked tongue and a heart of gold. Or partly gold. MB hadn't quite got the knack of being unashamedly cruel while also somehow caring yet, but she reminded Evie a lot of the older cop. 

Ruzek looked at her sideways, clearly amused and very curious as to how Platt knew her. 

"Nah, I'm still kicking. You look a little different, but you wear your years well," Evie assured her with equal melodramatic zeal. "You still giving 'em hell?" 

"Is there anything else to give?" Platt's face was just as unimpressed as ever when she turned back to her computer. 

That woman had given her a lot, in both the hell and help departments. Evie couldn't help smiling fondly even though she'd also like to slap some emotion into her at times. "Nope." 

"You two know each other?" Dawson wanted to know. 

"Sadly," Evie answered, already beyond done being there. "Can we just get to the part where you ask me questions and I answer some of them in a partially satisfactory way so that I can get to what I want to be doing and you can get to hunting down information about me that I very much doubt you'll find?" 

"It's true," Platt sounded out from her desk. "She doesn't exist." 

"Sure," Voight responded, and it wasn't totally clear who he was responding to. He lead them upstairs, and with every step Evie disliked the situation more. 

It too way too long to give her statement, like it always did. True, it was her day off, technically, but Evie had never been one to sit around and waste time. Unless someone forced her into a vacation, she was going to be working no matter what day it was. 

"You look a little like you're about to bolt," Dawson mentioned, taking note of her unmasked distaste. 

"I'd like to, but I do try not to run from cops. Sometimes it can't be helped," Evie shrugged, neutralizing her expression, "but I like you guys, so I'll stick around long enough to wear out your patience." 

"You like us, huh?" Ruzek nodded, apparently pleased by this. 

Evie slapped his chest lightly with the back of her hand. "And you like me too much. Cut that out. You don't even know me." 

"I know you keep bulletproof vests and ammo in your car at all times. I know that you've been reading all of us since we met you, like you can see inside our heads. And," he leaned forward a little, "I know that you think Halstead is cute." 

"Very impressive," Evie said drily, and gave him a thumbs up. 

"So you do think he's cute?" 

"Yeah, I think he's cute. Don't worry, I also think you're a badass." Evie flashed Halstead a sardonic smile and he raised his eyebrows. 

"A cute badass?" 

"They exist. I'm one." That line got a smile out of nearly everyone in the room. "Let's not bother with introductions, yeah? I know all your names, anyway." 

Halstead leaned on his desk with his arms folded. "But we don't know yours. Which is weird, considering we’ve spent all morning together." 

"I have a lot of names. Which one do you want?" 

"How about your real one?" 

Folded arms seemed to be the thing for these guys. She looked around at each of them, memorizing the way each of them returned her stare. "Evie."

"What about your last name?" Dawson followed up. 

"Ayre. A-Y-R-E." Evie gave it up reluctantly, even though it wasn't something she didn't want them to know. It was just hard for her to give away her real name, even after all these years. 

"Ayre?" Halstead blinked in surprise. "That's familiar." 

Evie sighed. "I'm sure it is. And when you're hunting down my file, don't be surprised when there's nothing bad in it. It might be my real name but it's not my first one. Can we just go with Evie, please?" 

"Evie it is," Voight ended the discussion, clearly ready to move on. "Let's get down to business. What do you know about the Ouroboros gang?" 

Evie really didn't want to be there, she didn't want to spend time answering his questions, and yet it all made perfect sense since they were all after the same bad people. Just like with her name though, it was always hard to just dispense information. "Plenty," was all she could say at first. 

"Come on, you gotta give us more than that," Halstead argued. 

"Everything," she offered instead. "How's that?" 

"Everything?" Dawson was obviously skeptical. 

"A better question is what don't I know." She headed toward the white board that was still half-blank and grabbed a marker. "I'll skip the basics as I'm sure you know that already. Here's who you want to track down next, if you’re looking for Bravo’s immediate superior. No, I don't know where he is currently. Now, if you'll let me leave, I'll be happy to drop off some more information with one of you later today, after I've retrieved it. Okay?" 

Nobody was very impressed or very pleased with her unwillingness to be very forthcoming, but they had to be used to it. She folded her own arms, mimicking the rest of them. "If it makes you feel better, I can have someone with better credentials give you a reassuring phone call of the legitimacy of my information." 

Halstead moved toward her after Voight told Ruzek and Olinsky to go check out what she'd just written down. 

"I'm gonna take her to Med now, to get that shoulder looked at." 

"Fine." Voight had already moved on past this conversation and was heading into his office. "Make sure you get me that phone call." 

Evie nodded before following Halstead downstairs and they made it all the way outside before she said, "I could just run off, you know." 

"I'd catch you." 

"I'm pretty fast." 

"Mm-hm. I'd catch you. And we'd still be going to the hospital." 

"Can we take my car?" 

"Nope." 

"Are you gonna drop me back off here so I can retrieve my car?" 

"I'll just take you to see your guy, what's his name? Chaucer? Your code names are very interesting." Halstead was completely enjoying this. Evie did find him cute and also very punchable. 

"No thanks." 

"Hey," Halstead opened the passenger door for her and pinned her with a serious look. "Work with me and I'll work with you, okay?" 

Evie considered this for a half-beat. "Yeah, okay." 

"So how often do you go to the hospital, anyway?" 

Why did they have to make conversation? Oh right, that's just the Halstead way. "Often enough." 

"Will has never talked about you." 

"Good, he doesn’t need to expend any extra brainpower wondering how I get all my injuries." 

"If you're more into investigating than detective-ing or whatever, how do you get so beat up that you need medical attention all the time?" 

"Jay." 

"Are we on a first name basis now? Cool." 

"Jay, just spit it out." 

"You were part of the Ouroboros, weren't you?" 

"Yep." 

He probably hadn’t expected her to admit it straight out since he didn't say anything right after. They got to drive in silence for several blocks. "How long?" 

"Was I in?" 

"Have you been out." 

"Ten years." 

Jay looked at her briefly, confused. "Then how long were you in?" 

Evie bit her lip in resignation. "Sixteen years, about." 

Halstead looked at her with unreadable eyes while they sat at a red light. "You grew up in the gang? No wonder you said you know everything." 

"It's not just a gang, though. It's an enterprise. It's an empire. It's a family business. You know that." 

"I know that." 

"I grew up in the family." 

"How bad was it?" 

Evie didn't answer that, letting the silence speak for her. Halstead didn't ask anything else, right up until they pulled into Med's parking lot. "So-" 

"Will doesn't ask me about my scars." She said very pointedly. "So he doesn't know anything about my scars. And I'm really not interested in talking to you about them either." 

"Fair enough," Jay acknowledged. "Let's go get you stitched up, okay?" 

Evie got out of the car and didn't bother saying anything else. Underneath all the questions and the suspicion, she could tell Jay cared. Also, he was now Jay in her head instead of Halstead, just like Will was Will too. She had always connected too easily. 

"This can't be good," was what Will said when he saw them. Jay just smiled harmlessly and Evie wished once again that she had just chosen to sleep in. 

\-- 

"All set. Try to go the rest of the week without coming in again, okay?" Will's smile was perhaps the only thing Evie liked about coming to the hospital. The staff were all very good and she liked them well enough, but she always bolted out as soon as she could. Will though, she could stomach being around a little longer. She had told him once that she was sorry for being that younger sibling that couldn't stay out of trouble. He said that as long as she needed a big brother to patch her up, he'd be there. Will was a good guy and she could see that his brother was the same way. 

"I'll do my best." Evie smiled back easily. Will clapped Jay on the shoulder and pats her on the head fondly before leaving to take care of other patients. 

Jay watched her pull on her jacket with a thoughtful gaze. "He cares about you." 

"He's a good guy," was all she said. 

"He is," Jay agreed. 

"I see that soft smile runs in the family." She hopped up from the bed and cracked her neck. "Must be a Halstead thing." 

"Sure," he said, gentle and easy now that he'd seen her interact with others like a normal person. "Are we going to see your guy now?" 

Evie sighed and looked at him for a moment before mentally putting away her fists. They were on the same side. She didn't need to be a fighter here. Chaucer didn’t care who came to see him as long as they didn’t damage his records. For being a genius, he thought of himself as beyond the law and scoffed at the idea that the fact that he obtained much of his information illegally would be enough to get shut down. “I’m necessary,” Chaucer said often, and Evie agreed.

She clicked her tongue and straightened. "Yeah, we're going to see my guy." 

"I'll take you back after and you can get your car, okay?" 

"Okay." They headed back out, Evie trailing Jay with a reluctance that she knew was now pretty much based on principle. She didn’t involve others in her business when she didn’t have to, but maybe she could start involving them for reasons other than necessity, like practicality and speed. What a revolutionary thought. Evie picked up her pace. 

"Sorry to be so forceful." Jay apologized once they were on the road. 

"Sorry to be such a pain." Evie offered back. "It's instinct and experience taking over logic and situation." 

"Uh-huh." 

"I'm always wary of involving regular cops because we rely on them to do the normal stuff and I want them to be able to do the normal stuff, not have to deal with larger and more complicated issues. But you Intelligence guys, I guess you do complicated all the time, so I might as well be up front with you. I was just pissed off earlier and I also try to keep my people off the grid, you know? They're all sort of non-existent and they like it that way. But I'll work with you." 

"You are surprisingly reasonable." 

"Sometimes. Other times I'm just ridiculously stubborn." 

"Yeah, well, so am I." 

"I think that's a cop thing." 

"I guess." Jay drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "Are your people like you? Or are they CI's?" 

"CI's, I guess. Some of them are more legit. We're kind of like the Intelligence Unit, if nobody really knew about you. I get a lot more leeway that you do, I bet. I really shouldn't, but I have some, um, connections that smooth things over for us. And we bring down a lot of guns - big and small - so at the end of the day, the powers that be are more happy than unhappy." 

"So you're a criminally involved crime-fighting unit?" Jay smiled faintly, amused by the idea. 

Evie smirked right back. "You could say that." 

"Okay then." Jay turned where she told him to. "How did you get into this extremely specific unit?" 

She unbuckled her seatbelt as he turned the car off, rolling around various answers in her head. Jay didn't prompt her for an answer but let her think about it as they headed into the old bookstore they'd parked next to. "It's a long story," was what she finally said with an accompanying apologetic smile. "Maybe I'll tell you one day." 

Jay just nodded, no doubt not expecting much of an answer anyway. "Who's this Chaucer guy, exactly?" 

"That's me," Chaucer answered, appearing from behind a row of shelves. He ambled up and peered at Jay, scrutinizing him from behind his spectacles for several moments. "Can he be trusted with my books?" 

"Yes," both of them said in unison, though they meant different things. 

"Hmm," Chaucer hummed disapprovingly as he lead them to the back. "What's his name?" 

"He's doesn't have one." 

"Gotta have a name for the guestbook." Chaucer paused in front of the vault door designed to look like a wall with a fantastically weird mural on it. Evie still didn’t know if those figures were supposed to be people or not.

"He's a cop, do you want him in the guestbook?" 

"Is he gonna be reading my files?" 

"Probably." 

"Then he goes in the guestbook." Chaucer pointed at the table impatiently.

"Okay." Evie picked up the pen and signed her own name in the book before turning to the bewildered detective beside her. "Blue Jay. How's that?" 

Chaucer turned to place his hand against a handprint on the wall. "Very nice. Put it down and I'll get your files. Does the name Ptocheia mean anything to you?" 

"No, but I'll bet it means something to you." 

Chaucer disappeared and reappeared with a thick folder off one of his many shelves. "Greek mythology. Ptocheia was the spirit of beggary." 

"You have a bunch of Ptocheia hanging around?" 

"Exactly.” Chaucer slid the door shut and placed the folder in Evie’s hands. “The only thing I have to give are words. They don't want those. So please tell them to go elsewhere." 

Jay's eyes were wandering all over the place, taking in the sort of collection that Chaucer had. 

"I'll see what I can do. Thanks for the info." 

"You take your nice young police officer and have a good day, and I want those files back in pristine condition." 

Evie leaned forward to give Chaucer a kiss on the cheek. "Always. See you later." 

Jay made it all the way back to the car before giving her a look that was so full of questions that she had to laugh at the one that made it out of his mouth. "Blue Jay?" 

"Too on the nose?" Evie couldn't contain her grin. “If it really bothers you, pick your own name next time.”

"Blue Jay." He huffed a little longer before driving away. "You have very odd friends." 

"Yep. Now take me back, please." 

"Very odd. And you are very odd. What the heck is in that file? Where did that old guy get it? He's not some ancient hacker, is he? That would be very weird. Blue Jay? And what was with the random Greek mythology reference? Does he always do that? You clearly know him very well but I can't remember ever having seen that store before. Does any of this have anything to do with what we did this morning? God, this morning was a long time ago. I'm starving. Are you starving? Let's get food." 

"Okay," was all she could say in between fits of laughter. "Whatever. I don't have anything planned for today. Should we get food for everyone? I'll pay. In compensation for being so odd and confusing." 

"So weird. So hungry." 

Evie started laughing again. Trust an action-packed morning to be the start of a beautiful friendship.


End file.
